Book contents
- The Brexit Challenge for Ireland and the United Kingdom
- The Brexit Challenge for Ireland and the United Kingdom
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- The Constitutional Tensions of Brexit
- Part I Territorial Pressures in Ireland and the United Kingdom
- 1 Subsidiarity, Competence, and the UK Territorial Constitution
- 2 Brexit and the Mechanisms for the Resolution of Conflicts in the Context of Devolution: Do We Need a New Model?
- 3 Beyond Matryoshka Governance in the Twenty-First Century: The Curious Case of Northern Ireland
- 4 Political Parties in Northern Ireland and the Post-Brexit Constitutional Debate
- 5 The Constitutional Significance of the People of Northern Ireland
- 6 The Constitutional Politics of a United Ireland
- 7 The Minority Rights Implications of Irish Unification
- Part II Institutional Pressures and Contested Legitimacy
- Index
7 - The Minority Rights Implications of Irish Unification
from Part I - Territorial Pressures in Ireland and the United Kingdom
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 August 2021
- The Brexit Challenge for Ireland and the United Kingdom
- The Brexit Challenge for Ireland and the United Kingdom
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- The Constitutional Tensions of Brexit
- Part I Territorial Pressures in Ireland and the United Kingdom
- 1 Subsidiarity, Competence, and the UK Territorial Constitution
- 2 Brexit and the Mechanisms for the Resolution of Conflicts in the Context of Devolution: Do We Need a New Model?
- 3 Beyond Matryoshka Governance in the Twenty-First Century: The Curious Case of Northern Ireland
- 4 Political Parties in Northern Ireland and the Post-Brexit Constitutional Debate
- 5 The Constitutional Significance of the People of Northern Ireland
- 6 The Constitutional Politics of a United Ireland
- 7 The Minority Rights Implications of Irish Unification
- Part II Institutional Pressures and Contested Legitimacy
- Index
Summary
In this chapter I explore how Irish unification may affect the attitude of the Irish courts towards minority rights adjudication. First I examine minority rights protection under the current Constitution of Ireland. I show that the Irish judiciary have not developed an understanding that their constitutional function includes a particular role in ensuring the rights of minorities specifically are protected against attack. I then consider how unification, and the incorporation into the Irish constitutional order of a large and politically significant minority - the Ulster Scots/Ulster British population of Northern Ireland – could affect judicial attitudes towards minority rights. I ground this analysis on comparative constitutional research, particularly of American and Canadian jurisprudence. In this, building on the contribution of Doyle, Kenny, and McCrudden in this volume, I also consider how maintaining consociationalism for what is presently Northern Ireland upon unification may also inform the judiciary’s understanding of their role in adjudicating upon minority rights claims.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Brexit Challenge for Ireland and the United KingdomConstitutions Under Pressure, pp. 153 - 172Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021